Bow-ties Are Cool
by DarthRushy
Summary: Derpy's wonderful life with Doctor Whooves goes all wrong when he is forced to regenerate during one of their adventures. Can she accept that the bizarro person she's stuck with is still her special somepony or will this be the end of their love?
1. Chapter 1

Doctor Whooves and Derpy fled back to the TARDIS as the corridors around them became filled with Daleks. This was definitely the wrong planet to pop into. They galloped through the hallways, avoiding blasts from the Daleks' guns and ignoring their cries.  
"EX-TERMINATE! EX-TERMINATE" the Daleks screeched.

Derpy gave no thought to anything around her as she frequently did when she was in a hurry. She tried to focus on the blue doors ahead of her and was happy to reach it right before the crazed pepperpots did.  
"YAHOOO!" yelled Derpy happily as she flew/ran into the TARDIS and landed on the metal floor. She held onto it, ready for the take-off, but noticed only then that the Doctor wasn't present.

_Oh no_. she thought in despair and turned around to see the doors opening and her only friend stumble through them and fall down, just like she had. The Doctor's mane was scorched and he was weak.  
"Oh my gosh! Doctor!"  
She helped the delusional stallion up and closed the doors in the Daleks' faces.

"Doctor..." she started in a soft tone which grew stronger as she tried to get through to him. "You have to get us out. Please. Please, we need to go!"

Hearing her brave squeaky voice speak with such fear boosted the Doctor immediately. He got up with some effort and pushed himself to the console.  
"Off we go... back to Equest... ri... a." He laughed crazily. "Now wasn't that... a trip?"

"Doctor, you're hurt." Derpy commented. "Please let me help."  
She knew next to nothing about medical attention, but she believed the Doctor was completely fried where his brain was concerned.  
"No. My body's doing it already. I'm... changing. I can feel it."

_Changing? What does he mean by that?!_ Derpy thought. Her thoughts were interrupted when Doctor Whooves pushed himself to his... well, hooves.  
"Doctor, you should really lie down!"  
"No, I really shouldn't. When I stand up, my body channels the energy faster and it'll look like a sparkler. Awesome." he laughed, but had to stop when his kidneys began rebuilding themselves.

"What're you talking about?! What energy?" asked Derpy, confused and sad that the Doctor had never mentioned this before. She thought he shared all his secrets with her.

"Regeneration." he said. The Doctor hadn't really known whether or not regeneration worked in this world, but he was sort of glad it did. He didn't want to deprive his wondrous mare of companionship. "It means I'm gonna change a bit. We'll see... when this is over."  
As he said those words, his hooves began to glow yellow, like Derpy's eyes. Speaking of her eyes, they were painfully trying to fix themselves on the Doctor and what was happening to him.

"I don't want you to change." said Derpy quietly. He was the only friend she ever had, the only one who treated her with the respect that she had never even earned(in her mind). He was perfect, just the way he was with his spiky hair, pretty brown fur and imposing, but still warm eyes. He was absolutely everything she needed and changing... that was just wrong.

"I have to. We all have to change in order to survive, this is just-GAH!" he gagged and spat out yellow energy. By this point, his whole body was glowing.

Doctor Whooves looked deep into Derpy's eyes, both of which now looked directly at him. "I love you, miss Hooves." he said honestly.  
"I..." started Derpy, but jumped back in shock as the Doctor literally exploded in front of him. The light became unbearable and she covered her face with her forelegs. The TARDIS seemed to react badly to the event as well and it began to shudder violently. Other, much more minor explosions began happening all around the ship.

It was almost like Derpy's whole new life was breaking apart in front of her. As the light finally subsided, Derpy looked up to see a very dark brown stallion with a mane that was somewhat similar to the Doctor's, but much bigger and not spiky. She had never met the pony in front of her before.  
The stallion laughed his guts out and ran around the fires of the ship in a very hyperactive, but kind of funny way.

"WOO-HOO!" he yelled and grabbed Derpy by her shoulders. "What do I look, what do I look?! Am I young, old, wait no I have to be young, I'm running, okay I'm young, do I look nice? Any mushrooms growing on me? Do I still look like a pony? Yes, yes I do! Oh, this is great!"

"STOP!" screamed Derpy and broke down crying. The Doctor was just about to apologize, but the TARDIS could wait no longer for their love life and threw them against the console.  
"It seems we're in a bit of a pickle, Derpy." he yelled over the noise. "The TARDIS is crashing! GERONIMOOOOO!"


	2. Chapter 2

The TARDIS was wildly accelerating towards Manehattan with increasing speed. Derpy held onto the console for her life whilst the Doctor was trying to not fall out of the ship.  
"This could be a problem!" yelled the Doctor as his hooves failed to hold onto the grilled floor and the gravity of Equestria pulled him down towards his doom. Or another regeneration. Which would really suck, he was barely getting started with this one!

However, fate seemed determined to make his thoughts a reality and the Doctor felt the TARDIS slip away. "GAH!" he yelled, mentally preparing himself for another death. Just when things seemed the most grim, two silver hooves brought him back. Derpy had come to save him!  
_I should've seen that one coming!_ figured the Doctor. How could he ever have underestimated her?

She pulled Whooves back into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind him. "Thank... you." said the Doctor, gasping for air.  
"You're welcome." she replied. "But, er... we're still crashing."  
The Doctor was insulted. "I know that!"

Then, the TARDIS shuddered so violently that both ponies were thrown screaming to the ceiling and back again. As they flew through the air, the Doctor pushed Derpy as hard away as possible so that she wouldn't hit the console. Fortunately, they both landed quite safely, even if their brains were a bit rattled.  
The TARDIS had 'landed'.

* * *

As soon as she was back on her hooves, Derpy ran for the door. She heard the stallion trying to call her back, but did not reply. It just wasn't the same pony who saved her. No way.

She opened the doors to find herself in the middle of a garden. The TARDIS was lying on the remains of a flower bed. Not even bothering to find out where exactly she was, she made a run for it. After all, it wasn't that hard to ask for directions back to Ponyville where she could talk to her friends and- OOMPH!

Being both wall-eyed and in deep thought did not work for the mare as she rammed into a little filly. "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't see you!" said Derpy apolegitcally.  
The filly laughed instead. "You look funny."  
Cheering up the filly managed to bring a small smile to Derpy's face which instantly broke when the mysterious pony that had emerged from Doctor Whooves crawled out of the TARDIS.

"Who are you two?" asked the red-headed filly curiously. "And what's in the box?"  
"Well... I'm Derpy. Derpy Hooves. And this is..."  
The dark-brown stallion stood up and rubbed his aching neck. "I'm Doctor Whooves."  
"So you're married?"

Derpy felt her face grow hot. This question had come up multiple times in the past as well and she always started dreaming when it did. But not this time. This time she felt sad. And a little angry.  
"That's a common misconception." said the Doctor calmly, in a very un-Doctor way(for Derpy). "Actually, she's my assistant. And inside the box is a time machine."

"You have a working time machine?!" squealed the filly happily. "I wanna see it! Please-please-please-please!"  
The Doctor chuckled. "Not now, it needs some fixing up. However, while we're here, you could give two hungry time travelers a snack."  
"Right this way, mister Doctor!"  
The filly ran back towards his house and the dark-brown colt began to follow him, but then noticed Derpy wasn't around anymore.

* * *

_As the Doctor exited the TARDIS, he took immediate notice of the gorgeous colors around him. Bright green, yellow, red... whereever he was, it was a pretty place. He wondered around a bit until something encountered him._

_And then something encountered him. Or more precisely, he encountered something. It was a beautiful silver-haired mare. She walked right past him yet did not notice somehow. The Doctor decided she didn't consider him a threat and moved past. Suddenly, the mare reacted and screamed in a peculiarly un-equine manner.  
"Who's there?!" she shouted. Ah, so they were talking, sentient ponies. That, or the TARDIS had gotten really good at translating.  
"I'm the Doctor and you don't have to scream. I'm not going to hurt you."_

_The pony relaxed straight away. "You just scared me, that's all. I didn't know you were there."_  
_"You walked right past me." said the Doctor, confused until he had a good look at her eyes. They were beautiful, deep honey-colored eyes, but the most unique thing about them was that they were facing absolutely random directions._  
_"Oh. Sorry."_  
_The pretty mare lowered her head in a timid manner that she seemed to be more than familiar with. "Not your fault."_  
_"No, I mean sorry for scaring you. I'm not sorry for the eyes, they're cute."_  
_She was shocked. "That's the prettiest thing anypony ever said to me."_  
_Now it was the Doctor's turn to be shocked. "That little compliment? To someone like you? Something's definitely wrong here. Maybe you have a perception filter on you." He couldn't grasp the concept of someone so nice being ignored like that._

_The Doctor tried to take his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, only to find that he had no clothes on. Wait... his legs were definitely in the wrong place too.  
"Um... miss...?"  
"Derpy. Derpy Hooves."  
"Miss Hooves, am I a pony?" he asked in a scared tone.  
Derpy let out a melodic laugh. "Of course you're a pony, Doctor! Who else would you be?"_

_The Time Lord decided not to panic further and take this as a new experience. "Nothing, I suppose. Still... I'm gonna miss the hands. And also my screwdriver. In fact, I think I should get back to the TARDIS. Wanna come with me?"_

_Derpy had nothing to go back for. "Do I?!"_


	3. Chapter 3

Doctor Whooves galloped around the nearest streets, but found no sign of Derpy anywhere. _Why am I so worried? We're in Manehattan, she's probably visiting her family or something._

He decided not to think about it too much and returned to the little filly's(whose name was Joy-Anna) house for breakfast or lunch or dinner. One of those, at least. For a Time Lord, he was finding it very difficult to keep track of time. His thoughts and memories were all over the place.  
BANG!

The Doctor found himself lying on the ground. Oh, the annoying part of regeneration was kicking in fast...  
"Are you alright, mister Doctor?" asked Joy-Anna.  
Trying not to look like an idiot, the Doctor got up as fast as he could. His head was whirling so all he did was babble. "Yes, I'm quite alright, quite so, yes... uh... LUNCH! We're having lunch, yes?"

"Dinner, actually." replied Joy-Anna, confused.  
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "I knew that, of course."  
He headed towards the house, stomach growling.  
BANG!

"Need some help, mister Doctor?"  
"No, I'm good. You can bring dinner here."

* * *

_The Doctor lead Derpy to the TARDIS. She took an immediate liking to the stylish blue box and was eager to see how exactly the cool brown stallion fitted inside the thing. One of her eyes focused on the Doctor and Derpy noticed he was smiling. She first thought it was out of simple pride of his box, but as the doors opened and the yellow glow covered her silver body, she quickly realized that he was grinning in _anticipation.

_"Yes, it's bigger on the inside..." said the Doctor before Derpy could even open her mouth. "... and it's a time machine. And a spaceship though I don't really like to use her as that. Looky but no touchy, okay?"_

_Derpy nodded weakly as she took in everything around her. The Doctor was trying to open what looked like a toolbox, but found it difficult to use his hooves._  
_"Oh honestly now! HOW am I supposed to get anything done with these!" he grumbled._  
_Had she been anyone, but the person who people always yelled at for not being able to or even remembering to do the simplest things, she would've snarked at him. Instead, Derpy trotted over to Doctor Whooves(who was nearly in tears out of frustration) and started teaching him exactly how to use hooves correctly._

_With her help, the Doctor quickly got the hang of it and finally got out his sonic screwdriver. "Now then, let's see." The sonic screwdriver began emanating noise (well, that made sense, the Doctor _had_ called it sonic) and from it, the earth pony somehow deduced that..._

_"MAGIC IS REAL!"_

* * *

Derpy Hooves wandered the streets aimlessly. After the crash, she'd sneaked away to a street end where she hid behind some trash cans so that the confused Doc- no! Not the Doctor, but the confused... bizarro wouldn't find her. Right before exploding, the Doctor had said that he was going to change. She understood and accepted that. But then pop! and out came a freaky maniac who looked and sounded nothing like her Doctor Whooves. Gone were the slashy mane, the imposing yet somehow understanding eyes and gone was the slow, teacher-like personality that Derpy always admired.

And even though she'd never admit it even in her thoughts, Bizarro with his unstyled dark-brown mane and unremarkable build-up wasn't nearly as attractive as Doctor Whooves's expressive face, cool body and wide grin. Change was change. It wasn't him, never, no way.  
But now the question was, what to do next? She'd closed off her life in Ponyville before leaving to travel with the Doctor and definitely did not want to go back there to face the victorious bullies.

Derpy's own family lived in Manehattan, but there would be questions and suggestions and assurances and other things she just couldn't take. Were the idiots back in Ponyville right all this time? Was she really nothing without her friend and... possible special somepony?

She turned her head, hearing the laughter of Bizarro and the little filly they met in the nearby garden. They didn't even seem to care anymore that she was gone. Maybe Bizarro had only come running to make sure that she was?  
The thought infected Derpy's whole self and she started sobbing quietly, mourning her supposedly lost life.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor finally got up from the flower bed and decided that he needed a mirror to see what new interesting attributes he had. All he could really ascertain from this point was that he was still an earth pony. Shame that. He'd been hoping to have wings like Derpy. They would fly over the clouds and under the clouds and around the clouds and into the clouds...

He was so lost in counting up all the various ways to intercept clouds that he didn't realise the filly had returned with some toast and bananas.  
"Ah, thanks!" he said fast and started gobbling up. He had a lot of energy to make up for after the change. "So tell me Anna, where's your family?"  
Joy-Anna giggled. "They're hiding."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Hiding? Where?"  
"They're scared of you, obviously. They're only big."  
He was completely lost. Since when were adults scared? Or was that his memory playing tricks? Were adults the scared ones?  
Joy-Anna thought it only fair that she asked questions now. "Mister Doctor? Where did your friend go?"

"Derpy? Derpy's... probably... somewhere. I dunno, I'm too messed up to think. She's fine, I suppose. Did you check the TARDIS?"  
"The what?"  
_Oh yeah. I never told her about the TARDIS. _  
The Doctor explained: "The time machine. Did you check the time machine?"

"How? The doors are locked."  
"Really?" Doctor Whooves got up and tried to push the doors open with his hooves, to no avail.  
"You... said it needed some fixing." said Joy-Anna quietly.

The Doctor laughed uncertainly. "I'm sure I did. Can't keep track of... DERPY?! WHERE'S DERPY?! Oh my god, where did she go?!" he yelled erratically and ran off with unfinished toast flying in the air.

* * *

_Derpy barely had time to react when the Doctor galloped out of the TARDIS, pulling out all the stops.  
"Doctor, wait! Where are ya going?!" she called out.  
"MAGIC, Derpy! HAH, I knew it!" he slowed down. "I've seen many things out there, many people performing so-called magic, but there's always some kind of a technobabble explanation out there for it. But this universe is so big and vast and full of so many wonderful things that I just knew magic had to be real! Of course, whenever I tried to tell my theory, people kept trying to lock me up. Til one day I gave up and ran away. That's a bit of nostalgia for you. But all I have to do now is track it down."  
He tapped the sonic screwdriver, which made grinding noises. "Not that this thing could do much else now anyway, it's like a compass with a magnetic force nearby. All we have to do is follow the signal."  
__  
"Doctor, I know magic exists and I could easily take you to any unicorn you want."  
He halted and stared at Derpy with a serious expression. "But what would be the fun in that? No no no no, we are going to follow the signal. Doesn't that sound better to you? Follow the signal?"  
"Uh..."  
"It does!"  
As if he had won the 'argument', he continued towards Ponyville. The signal conveniently followed the road._

_The two of them made their way over to the tree house of Twilight Sparkle. As expected, Princess Celestia's student was practising spells. The Doctor paused._  
_"Derpy..."_  
_"Yeah?"_  
_"As my assistant, you are now obligated to find me a handkerchief. I think I'm gonna cry. This is too good."_

* * *

Derpy cleaned herself up and tried to regain her dignity. She was better than this! The Doctor had shown her that she wasn't just a stupid mare, she was a person. A strong person, he'd insisted. And his final words... he said he loved her.

So no matter what, no matter who Doctor Whooves now was, _her_ Doctor had loved her. And that was knowledge that she'd treasure for the rest of her existence. So why mope when she can really find out the truth?

Doctor who?

She walked straight where she'd come from, her back straight and her eyes resolutely straight. Derpy Hooves returned to the house where the filly was knocking on the TARDIS doors.  
"Hey you!" she said, in a forced carefree tone. "Where'd he go?"  
"Into the box! He won't come out!" Joy-Anna complained.

The TARDIS began whooshing, confirming all of Derpy's fears at once. He was leaving, he didn't need her, maybe found her _unbearable_.  
"DOCTOR!" she screamed.

* * *

Doctor Whooves liked the new look of the TARDIS. Not like, loved. It was all clashing and random and fantastic. Like he at the moment. He put on a 1990s pop song and started dancing to the fast, beating music.

However, as the regeneration slowly subsided within him, some relevant questions popped back into his head. Children asking adult questions... adults being unnaturally afraid... and Derpy... where's Derpy?  
Part of his brain tried to block those nagging things out. He wanted to stay high. But it was all over. Reality quickly popped in and he grabbed his sonic to turn the music off when he realised he'd never replaced it.

"Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger..." the Doctor went to turn off the music on manual when a green-tipped rod propped out from the console. He smiled.  
"Thank you dear."  
After restoring order in the ship, he finally set in coordinates via the typewriter(so much fun!) and returned the TARDIS to Manehattan, but a few blocks away from his original location. The best way to start looking for Derpy would be her family.

Having met them himself, he had little trouble with remembering where their apartment building was. However, the number itself was hard to conjure up. It's like it just wasn't there!  
Obviously his head wasn't fully ready yet. A Time Lord should've been able to access any memory by choice.

* * *

"Hello, I'm the Doctor, I..."  
The rough-looking old stallion looked at him with caution. "Have you seen my mummy?"  
_Deja vu._  
"Your mummy isn't here and in case you ask, I most certainly am not your mummy! Now, do you know where...?"  
"I want my mummy."  
_Oh, for the love of the god of Rassilon!  
_"I'll tell you where your mummy is if you tell me where the Hooves' family lives."  
The stallion lit up. "They're in 217!"  
"Thank you. Your mummy's downstairs.

He hated to trick the obviously disturbed fellow, but something made him want to be more urgent than ever.


End file.
